PENANCE IN THE EARLY CHURCH

Author(s): Edward Booth

Source: Life of the Spirit (1946-1964) , JULY 1959, Vol. 14, No. 157, PENANCE AND
REPENTANCE (JULY 1959), pp. 18-25
Published by: Wiley

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43705467

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 1 8 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

The sacrifice of animals is insufficient, is not
is the sinner's contrition and praise that is acce

^ ^ V

PENANCE IN THE EARLY CHURCH

Edward Booth, o.p.

heart, for they shall see God' (Mattā v, 8) is only to be

THE heart, understoodunderstood
full for significance
in a settingthey
of worship.
in shall Behind
a settingit ofis thesee our God' of Lord's worship. (Mattā 'Blessed v, Behind 8) are is the only it clean is to the be of
thought of the psalm: 'Who shall ascend into the mountain of the
Lord; or who shall stand in his holy place? The innocent in hands,
and the clean of heart . . (Ps. xxiii, 3f). Man must become pure
in his inmost being; and he must do so as a preparation for wor-
ship. But the man who conceives such desires discovers within
himself impeding faults. These cause him grief; and the acknow-
ledgment of being in such a state is to be penitent. Penitence as a
prelude to the sacrifice of worship is the theme of Ps. 1: 'A
sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit; a contrite and humbled heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. . . . Then thou shalt accept the
sacrifice of justice . . This relation between penance and
worship is one of the most evident features of the place of penance
in the practice of the early Church.
If the reasons recently put forward by Fr J.-P. Audet, O.P., for
dating the Didache from between A.D. 50 and 70 and locating its
origin in Antioch can be accepted, then its significance is extremely
great. It links penance or confession with prayer several times. 'In
the assembly, you shall confess your faults, and you will not
enter into prayer with an evil conscience' (iv, 14). Whether the
formulas used would be general, or whether there would be a
spontaneous confession of each individual's sins, we do not
know. As it is the last injunction of the 'Way of Life', it is unlikely
to refer to 'mortal' sins. In the kind of eucharistic preface which it
gives, there are these words: 'May he who is holy come; may
he who is not do penance' (x, 6). Then, in a general rubric it

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 PENANCE IN THE EARLY CHURCH I9

says : 'Each Lord's day, come together for the breaking

and the eucharist, after having confessed your sins so that y
be pure. But he who has a difference with his companion
not come to the assembly before being reconciled, so th
sacrifice does not suffer any stain' (xiv, 1-2). Here, stated in
terms, is the place of penance in the early Church (indeed
Church at any time) : penance is necessary so that all may
holy; holiness is necessary for the purity of the sacrific
tively offered, and the unity in holiness in offering that
is the cause of the corporate unity of the faithful.
We shall not be concerned with the penance which is ne
in receiving baptism and entering the Church, though t
provide the pattern for post-baptismal penance. Slight tho
evidence from sub-apostolic times is, it is clear that pena
not only possible but necessary for post-baptismal fa
know that by the third century there was a form of reco
of a penitent; but the historical evidence does not provid
plete historical certainty that a form always existed. It do
ever, seem to be most likely, and that the penitent was
left to make his peace with God informally. A character
the writers in the sub-apostolic Church is the clemency th
To cause divisions within the Church was a serious
because of its corporate unity in holiness. Yet St Clem
Rome writes to the 'beginners of sedition and dissen
Corinth in a mood of conciliation. 'Blessed are we if we
the precepts of the Lord in the concord of charity, that by c
our sins maybe forgiven us - It is better for a man to confes
than to harden his heart' (i ad Cor . 50). St Ignatius write
Smyrnaeans that while heretics remain obdurate they ar
shunned as wild beasts, human only in appearance. Only,
to be prayed for so that they may undertake the hard
coming to repentance (ad Smyrn. iv, 1). To the Philadelp
writes: 'God does not dwell where there is division an
But the Lord pardons all who repent if this repentance lea
to unity with God and with the synod of the bishop' (ad
viii, 1). Though he refers to no formal reconciliation,
which underlies the place of a formal reconciliation is th
restoration to unity with God achieved through reconcil
with the body of the Church under the bishop. St Po
letter to the Philadelphians refers to a priest who, togeth

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20 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

his wife, had left the Church and b

asks them to join him in sorrow fo
them true repentance. Be level-heade
consider such to be your enemies. Ca
erring members, to preserve the bo
you build up yourselves.'1 The reaso
'we are all debtors to sin' (ad Philad.
this was not a private repentance, b
you alT suggests a reconciliation wit
Church, as in St Ignatius.
The Shepherd of Hermas, which da
St Polycarp, is of a quite different c
adds clarifications to these evide
speaks to the Angel of Penance: 'I h
certain teachers that there is no oth
when we went down into the water
our former sins.2 He said to me, Yo
so it is.' However, due to the comp
baptized Christian is allowed to retu
but not after that : '. . . if a man shoul
sin, he has one repentance. But if he si
unprofitable for such a man, for ha
3, 1-6). To do penance after a first p
restored the baptismal seal which had
tion of the penitent is seen symbol
into the tower (the Church), and
(bishop) is related to the work of th
and scrutinizes the value of the livi
unity of the Church. Some form of
is therefore necessary, and this is a
lying idea of a restoration to the un
an earthly counterpart to what is e
the same.
These early texts witness to the doctrinal conception of penance.
Later texts show us how penance was in fact administered,
i ad Philad. n. This is from a section of which only a Latin version has been preserved,
which lessens our certainty about its meaning.
2 Behind this is Heb. x, 26: For if we sin wilfully after having the knowledge of the
truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins'. According to P. Galtier, Aux Origines du
Sacrement de Pénitence , this would seem to refer to lapsing back simply into Jewish
practices. It seems that too rigorist an interpretation comes from taking it out of
its context (op. cit., p. 80 ff).

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 PENANCE IN THE EARLY CHURCH 21

and give light on the following four prob

question of degrees of sin; whether some are b
others too trivial to need formal reconciliation
it was allowed only once. Thirdly, whether it
of penance as we know it. Fourthly, the exact nat
reconciliation - which will provide indications
sacrament.

At the end of the second century, St Clement of Alexandria

tells the story of how St John sought out a Christian who had
become a robber. 'Kneeling down and praying and tenderly
kissing his right hand as having been purified by his repentance
he brought him back to the Church' (Quis Dives Salvetur , 42).
However, he allows only the possibility of one repentance, for
to repent continually and successively of one's faults is the same
as never having had the faith except where it brings conscious-
ness of sin (Strom, ii, 13, 57). He gives no account of the forma
reconciliation.
From Rome at about the same time comes another story,
related by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. v, 28), of a young man who had
lapsed into Theodotianism and become a bishop. Suddenly filled
with remorse (and according to the story, beaten by angels), he
put on sack-cloth and ashes and threw himself at the feet of the
pope (Zephyrinus, A.D. 199-217), and the clergy and people, who
were with difficulty moved to receive him back into communion
Generosity in giving pardon to the penitent caused schisms by
way of protest in the pontificate of Zephyrinus' successor, Callis
tus. He asserted in an edict his power to absolve adulterers and
fornicators. Clearly by this time reconciliation and absolutio
were seen as necessarily connected - absolution from sin being
necessary to allow union among the body of the faithful. Two
outstanding Christians, Tertullian and Hippolytus, went int
schism rather than accept this, Tertullian becoming a Montanist.
For him there was only the possibility of one post-baptisma
reconciliation (De Poen. vii, 2), and he contended that adultery,
idolatry and murder were three capital sins which could not be
forgiven by a bishop in virtue of his order - although they could
be forgiven by one having a special charismatic power (De Pudic
21) - ; the Montanists were characterized by ecstatic behaviour.
We know from St Cyprian that some of the North African bishop
would not absolve from adultery, and he comments that they

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22 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

have their own responsibility before

that they could not was a different m
At about the same time the nature
appears as an imposition of hands w
It is clearly the practice in Origen, in
and in St Cyprian - by whose time
be said to be fixed. If we accept an e
the Didascalia, it will be interesting
that of Origen with which it will the
will witness to the condition of
schism.
In the Didascalia , jurisdiction over sinners is given to the
bishop: ťAnd thus, in the Church, sit and utter your word as
one having power to judge for God those who have sinned,
since to you bishops has been said through the gospel: "Whatso-
ever you have bound on earth is bound inheaven" ' (ch. 5 ed. Con-
nelly) . The various formulas which Origen uses (' through the voice
of the bishop', 'through the sentence of the bishop', etc.) showed
that his teaching was the same. According to both the Didascalia
and Origen, the bishop begins his examination privately; then, if
necessary, he brings in witnesses, and after that he can take the
person before the whole Church. But if the correction begins by
being private, the penance is clearly public. The sinner has cut
himself off from communion with the Church, whether his sin
was public or not, for if he has committed a grave sin he has
extinguished the life of the Holy Spirit within him. Penance and
reconciliation are the only way of return. According to the
Didascalia , he is to fast for two to seven weeks and exist virtually
in the catechumenate; and Origen writes of 'the affliction of the
flesh which is usually undertaken by penitents'. He is not allowed
to take part in the 'prayers and sacrifice', but only to hear the
'lessons' (this fairly clearly means the mass of the catechumens).
The Didascalia and Origen are agreed that the rite by which
reconciliation is made is the imposition of hands by the bishop,
by which the Holy Spirit is restored to those who have lost him.
The words of the Didascalia about the nature of reconciliation are
succinct: 'The imposition of hands will be in the place of baptism
for him; for either by the imposition of hands or by baptism they
receive a participation of the Holy Spirit' (ch. 10). We might
comment that as the penance before baptism provides the pat-

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 PENANCE IN THE EARLY CHURCH 23

tern of penance in a post-baptismal lapse, so the gift of

the same: a restoration of what was given in baptism. It
possible not to see in this what we know as the sacram
penance.
Were all sins forgivable, and how often was reconcil
possible? The Didascalia does not provide us with com
certainty on these questions. In ch. 5 we read that ťif anyo
have sinned after baptism, he is condemned to gehenna'. B
this should be interpreted as a general statement - the
quence of loss of the Holy Spirit - is shown by ch. 7 which
up the example of God forgiving Manasses of murde
our Lord forgiving the adulteress. Ch. 20 says that sins w
are not deadly are pardoned, and by martyrdom s
covered and the martyr leaves this world blessed. 'Deadly
refer to the three capital sins of idolatry, murder and adul
all of what we call 'grave' sins. In asserting that martyrdom
sins, it seems to be saying that although the Church
reconcile the sinner again, he is committed to the mercy
Origen is clearer: for the graver sins there is one penance,
others (ista communia ), by which he seems to mean the
which all men commit, there is the possibility of more th
penance (in Lev . xv, 2). The graver sins seem to be include
'mortal crimes' or 'blasphemy against faith' (ibid.). From a
text we have a list of mortal offences which includes adu
homicide and idolatry along with others (in Matt . xiii, 3
Quite clearly in Origen, mortal sins include hidden and p
sins. He says that if there is any doubt about their seriou
'doctor of souls' should be consulted as to whether the
sickness which ought to be exposed and cured in the mee
the whole Church' (in Ps. xxxvii, 6). What of those which
considered sufficiently serious? No ceremony is prescrib
perhaps other elements in Origen's theology can be ta
referring to the current thought with regard to them. T
much scope for penitence in his theology: the personal acc
of the burning light of the Logos into the soul, through
sins are purged away in the agony of remorse; and there
the union with the prayer of Christ, the angels and saints
works continually for the remission of sins. Perhaps it w
in these private ways that 'venial' sins were remitted.
The persecutions of the Emperor Decius brought up the

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24 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

tion of the reconciliation of the many lapsed

Novatus was a protest against the ease with w
St Cyprian, who opposed Novatus, gives us
the practices which have been described ha
usage. 'By imposition of the hand of the b
they receive the right of communication, (. E
accepted the peace, he receives the Spirit of t
4). Confession is made even of private grave
were guilty only of considering apostasy came
'sought a saving healing for their wounds, alt
few and not deep' (De Lapsis 28). Penances wer
to the seriousness of the sin. The libellatici , who
papers saying that they had offered sacrifice, we
a time (interim), the sacrificati who had actual
only on their death-bed. St Cyprian even g
that some mortal sins (as we, at least, conside
givable more than once. Writing of some c
who had been found with men, he judged t
been found not to have lost their virginity sho
into the Church after a penance, but should b
another occasion they would not be received b
who had lost their virginity should perform f
In conclusion : the practice of penance in the
consequence of the conception of the nature
its worship. While the need of an attitude of
on for all, grave sins committed after baptis
such as to cut off the sinner from communio
to render him unable to take part in the Chu
to deprive him of the presence of the Holy Sp
and absolution went together, and were ad
bishop who retained a jurisdiction over what
and the length of penance he could impose
received back into communion with the Ch
remitted by the imposition of hands of the b
of a deputed priest), in which the Holy Spirit w
Though it seems that in the earliest times reco
lution could only be given once, the suggestio
putting together the evidence of Origen an
there was a later conception of 'full penitenc
sible only once for the worse cases of the spe

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 PENANCE IN THE EARLY CHURCH 2 5

while for the less serious cases of mortal sin there was t
sibility of absolving from mortal sin more than once. Ven
do not seem to have been confessed, and absolution from
may well have been sought through personal sorrow, and
through sacramentais, which brought to the sinner the
the prayer of the whole Church.

^ ^

A STUDY IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY PIETY

S. G. A. LUFF

SOME Middle French entitled Le Saint Voyage de Jherusalem. Its

authoryearswaswas aFrench
SOME Middle author certain Seigneur
a ago certain entitledd'Angleure, whoLe inSaint1395
there came Seigneur into d'Angleure, my Voyage hands de a Jherusalem. who little book in 1395 Its in
made the pilgrimage to the holy places, and included in his
itinerary Mount Sinai and the monasteries of Anthony and Paul
in Egypt. It was a very comprehensive journey ; the Seigneur had
an eye for detail and would have excelled today as a compiler of
Blue Guides or Baedekers. He could not write a travelogue in the
Morton style, however, still less Waugh's, and the value of his
record lies in the remarkably complete list of relics and customs
which he managed to 4 do' with disarming simplicity and devotion.
His piety is not repulsive, for the charitable anxiety of the good
knight and his contemporaries to leave no event of scripture
unmarked for the edification of the faithful covers a multitude of
transgressions committed in their identification. I am not aware
that this work has been made available in English; a selection of
its material will not come amiss to throw an entertaining light on
the piety of the medieval pilgrim some hundred years before
reformers were to slight such exercises as abuse.
The pilgrims seem to have shut their eyes to passing interest as
far as Venice where, in the Maison-Dieu, they opened them to see
a tooth of Goliath, one and a half feet in length. The Seigneur
relaxes to give us a fair amount of commentary here, admonishing
the reader that he 'need not be so surprised' at its size and weight,
and pointlessly retails the entire episode of the combat with David

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